Merengue Rmba Dance Research

Dance Essays for The Rumba and The Merengue There are many folk dances that are performed around the world but two of the most popular are the Rumba which originated in Cuba, and the Merengue which originated in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica) The rumba is a dance that rivets its image on the mind. With so much history, rumba has been and is a dance of conflicts: love versus hate, aggression and harmony, sexuality and prudence. Musically, it taps into the realms of technicality and improvisation. As rumba means “party” this is clearly displayed in the dance. The upbeat music and dance form emerged in the mid-19th century, when the drumming of enslaved Africans blended with the melodies of Spanish colonizers “a Spanish legacy Africanized in the Cuban crucible,” explains music historian Maya Roy. (Ingber) The dance originates from two places: one Spanish and the other African. Although the dance primarily originated in Cuba, there were other dance developments which took place in Latin America and other Caribbean islands. …show more content…
The music is played with a clipped beat that stays with the expressive moves of the dancers. Accompanying instruments include the maracas, the claves, the marimbola, and the drums. The dance is performed at a rhythm is the additive rhythmic grouping of an eight pulse bar (one 4/4 measure) into 3+3+2 or, less often, 3+5 step. The rumba is performed at parties, family functions and in the ballroom. Some of the rumba attire consists of the women wearing a long flowing, glittery, elegant, bright colored dress down to their ankles or to their knees they also where colorful high heeled stilettos. The men wear long trousers with a long sleeved , flowing shirt with a pair of Latin dance